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PI OriginalAshlee RezinThursday July 18th, 2013, 3:50pm

Outraged Parents Seek Explanation For CPS Budget Cuts (VIDEO)

Officials from the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) had few answers Wednesday
night for community residents outraged over devastating district-wide
budget cuts that threaten to deprive students of much-needed teachers
and resources next year. Progress Illinois was there for the heated meeting.

Officials from Chicago Public Schools (CPS) had few answers Wednesday
night for community residents outraged over devastating district-wide
budget cuts that threaten to deprive students of much-needed teachers
and resources next year.

At a public meeting hosted by the
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC), CPS officials heard
testimony from parents and local leaders that the proposed budget cuts
to schools in Chicago’s Southwest Side neighborhood of Brighton Park
will add additional stress to an already blighted community.

“We’re
losing a lot of teachers out here, OK? We have students out here, kids
who are going to have lower grades because of cuts around these students. We have Kelly High
School, who is off of probation, who deserves more than what they got
this year,” said Anita Caballero, board president of the BPNC. “So all
these parents and I want to know why we’re getting these cuts."

When the CPS representatives, Phillip Hampton, executive director of Family and Community Engagement, and Julio Cesar Contreras, deputy of schools for the Pershing Network, didn’t have a response for Caballero, a chorus of “boos” erupted from the audience of roughly 300.

“I’m
not from the budget office,” Hampton responded to Caballero, shortly
before the crowd’s negative reaction prompted him to storm out of the
meeting.

Both CPS CEO
Barbara-Byrd Bennett and Chicago Board of Education President David
Vitale declined invitations to the 6:30 p.m. meeting at James Shields Elementary School, at 4250 S. Rockwell St. The BPNC also requested attendance from Alds. George Cardenas (12th) and Ed Burke (14th), the area's alderman and chairman of the Chicago City Council's Finance Committee, respectively.

“We
have some very serious, specific questions of how CPS is spending money
and how they are deciding which schools are going to be cut,” said
Patrick Brosnan, executive director of the BPNC. “We haven’t gotten any
answers or any resolution and I think they’re making decisions that show
us they don’t want us to succeed.”

Thanks to CPS’ new per-student budgeting,
a system that provides funding based on the number of students a school has,
principals across the district are contending with proposed budgets that
provide far less funding than what they were provided with last year.

According
to an analysis by the education coalition Raise Your Hand, school
budgets could be slashed by nearly $100 million in 155 of the district’s
681 schools.

Brighton Park’s neighborhood schools are
poised to collectively lose nearly $7.5 million. That translates to 45
less teaching positions and the loss of 25 non-teaching staff positions,
according to data complied by the BPNC.

Cuts at Thomas Kelly High School,
at 4136 South California Ave., could be the worst in the district for the
2013-2014 academic year. The school, which Caballero said has been taken
off the district’s probation list because of rising test scores, is
slated to lose roughly $4 million, resulting in the loss of 23 teachers
and 10 support staff members.

“Why would CPS do this,
when they say they care about our kids in our schools,” asked Caballero,
whose 18 year-old son graduated from Kelly High last year. “Do they
want our kids to succeed? I don’t think so.”

Caballero
criticized the district for “bribing” a North Side school with an
additional $100,000 in exchange for approving CPS' shrunken
budget. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the district is also offering monies from its reserve fund ranging from $35,000 to $100,000 to 134 other schools in an attempt to soften the blow of deep budget cuts.

“Why are they giving money to some schools and not others,” asked Lisa Villanueva, whose two children, ages 10 and 11, attend James Shields Middle School.

Shields Middle School could lose $300,000 under the proposed 2013-2014 budget.

Villanueva,
a single mother, said she anticipates the school will have fewer supplies
next year because of the district's budget cuts. She added that providing her
children with the materials necessary for success, a responsibility that
she said should fall on CPS’ shoulders, will be difficult for her and
other low-income families in Brighton Park:

The district’s deep budget cuts come as CPS cites a $1 billion deficit. In May, the Chicago Board of Education voted to shutter 50 schools across the city.

“As
long as we continue to rely solely on property taxes to fund our
schools, it’s only going to worsen,” he said. “It makes perfect sense to
use those funds to address and alleviate the pain of the budget cuts
we’re facing right now.”

TIF funds for the city of Chicago could reach $457 million for the 2012 tax
year, which is $3.3 million more than in 2011, according to Orr's
office.

“These budget cuts are unconscionable,” said
Garcia, who added that it was insulting to the Brighton Park community
that CPS officials at the meeting couldn’t answer their questions.

The
Cook County commissioner was one of several speakers at Wednesday’s
meeting to criticize the appropriation of TIF funds since the program’s
inception in 1986. Designed to encourage development in blighted areas,
portions of property taxes are used as a subsidy for community
development projects. Of roughly $5 billion that has been collected from TIF districts over the course of 27 years, $2.7 billion has been diverted from the school district.

“That
should be our money for our kids, our schools,” said Caballero. “DePaul
is getting our taxpayer dollars, is that correct? No. Give us back our
money.”

At Caballero’s request, Garcia and other meeting attendees, Ald. Toni Foulkes (15th)
and State Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago), agreed to write Emanuel a
letter, asking him to restore funding to all of the schools scheduled to see budget cuts. They also promised to write
Byrd-Bennett a letter requesting that she meet with the BPNC to
discuss proposed budget cuts.

Here’s more from Wednesday’s meeting, including Caballero's heated discussion with CPS' Hampton:

These
budget cuts are forcing principals into “unchartered territory,”
according to Susan Rodriguez, principal at Shields Elementary School.

“We
really have to tighten our belts,” she said. “The things we’ve been
able to enjoy and provide for our kids and our families before will be
lost.”

Shields Elementary, according to Rodriguez, stands
to lose $350,000 under the proposed budget for next year, translating to
the loss of two teaching positions and money for supplies and professional
development.

“But we were one of the lucky ones,” she added.

Rodriguez pointed to the students at Kelly High School, saying they will suffer the most under CPS’ plan.

“These
poor kids are trying to compete, they need to get into universities and
colleges, and they depend on their school to prepare them for that
competition,” Rodriguez said. “We have a community that has high needs,
it’s a low-income community and we need more services, not less.”

Brosnan
said the BPNC will continue to apply pressure on CPS officials. His
community, he continued, deserves to know how the district determines
which schools will get cut and why.

“At the very least, we
want answers,” he said. “They don’t care about us. Look at the proof. Who’s getting $100,000 in extra funds, and who’s getting $4 million
in cuts?”

Brosnan says he is still pursuing a meeting with Vitale and Byrd-Bennett. Hampton promised to inform the community activists about when Byrd-Bennett might be available for a meeting.

“Poor
working class communities of color are getting cut, and cut bad,” he
said. “Why are our schools getting cut when other schools in other
communities aren’t getting hit as hard? They don’t want us to succeed.”